Influence of Strategic Orientation on Performance of Hotels in Kenya, A Survey of Beach Hotels in Mombasa County.

Abstract

The hotel industry is regarded as among the crucial economic drivers for both developed and non-developed Nations. The industry contributes to economic growth by creating wealth, innovation and employment opportunities. However, the nature of strategic orientation that hotels use in their daily operations has been one of the reasons many hotels end up closing within the first three operation years. This research determined the influence of strategic orientation on hotel efficiency. The study's goals were to look into how entrepreneurial orientation influences hotel performance, business orientation on hotel performance, technology effects on hotel performance, and consumer orientation on hotel performance in Mombasa County. The descriptive survey design was used in the study to respond to the survey queries that require reallife contextual understandings and the theories used in this study included the firm’s performance theory and resource-based theory. The target population was the hotels from the hospitality industry in Mombasa County. The target populations were the eight (8) classified beach hotels in Mombasa County and comprised five of five (5) respondents from each of the eight (8) classified beach hotels in Mombasa County, Chief Executive Officer, an operation manager, relationship manager, information technology manager and a strategic manager (Langat, 2018). According to the findings, the performance of beach hotels in Mombasa County is influenced by customer orientation, marketing orientation, entrepreneurial orientation, and marketing orientation, technology orientation. The highest correlation coefficient between the results of beach hotels (r=.874**, P.05) is entrepreneurial orientation. Strategic orientation (Entrepreneurship orientation, Marketing orientation, Technology orientation, and Customer orientation) has a positive and important impact on beach hotel success in Mombasa County (r=0.948**, p.05). A linear regression model results showed that strategic orientation (Entrepreneurial orientation, Marketing orientation, Technology orientation and Customer orientation) explained 89.9% of the variations in the performance of hotels (R2=0.899). A positive and important relationship between strategic orientation and performance of beach hotels in Mombasa County was verified through multiple linear regressions. The performance of beach hotels in Mombasa County is influenced most by entrepreneurial orientation, while the performance of hotels in Mombasa County is influenced least by technological orientation. The study recommended that key leaders especially CEOs in beach hotels should focus more on the implementation of strategies that enhance entrepreneurial orientation. The study results indicated that the respondents agreed that the influence of entrepreneurship orientation on hotel performance was real. This study therefore recommends that the marketing officers give close attention to after-sales service as this has proved vital in enhancing the hotels’ performance.